10 Questions
A prologue is typically found at the end of a play.
False
A pun is a type of poetic stanza.
False
A soliloquy is when multiple characters speak their thoughts and feelings simultaneously.
False
In Shakespearean plays, the chorus is a single figure who speaks before each act.
True
All comedies, regardless of era, are intended to be humorous.
False
Aristotle defined tragedy as a form of drama that always has a happy ending.
False
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is classified as a comedy.
False
Choruses are commonly found in modern plays.
False
A Midsummer Night's Dream is classified as a tragedy.
False
Macbeth is classified as a comedy.
False
Study Notes
Drama Terms
- Drama: A work designed to be represented on a stage by actors, often dealing with a problem of importance.
- Dramatic Form: The organization of a script, including speaker identification, speech, and stage directions.
Play Structure
- Dramatis Personae: A list of characters in a play, provided at the beginning of the script.
- Act: A chunk of action in a play, often divided into scenes.
- Scene: A division of action within an act, noted with a small Roman numeral.
- Line: A single line of writing in a play, noted with Arabic numbers.
Literary Devices
- Pathetic Fallacy: An artistic device where nature reflects a character's feelings or the mood of the events.
- Stage Direction: A direction by the playwright to the actors, indicating how to speak and/or move during a particular line or scene.
- Monologue: An extended speech by a single speaker, revealing their personality and significant events in their life.
Dialogue and Irony
- Dialogue: Spoken exchanges between two or more speakers in a play.
- Dramatic Irony: When a character says something, but the audience knows more than the character does, creating a double meaning.
Verse and Relief
- Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter, commonly used in Shakespeare's plays.
- Comic Relief: A humorous scene or incident in an otherwise serious drama, providing laughter as a release from tension.
Play Introductions and Endings
- Prologue: An opening section of a longer work, establishing character, theme, action, or setting.
- Chorus: Originally a group of masked male dancers who sang or chanted, later reduced to a single figure, often speaking the prologue.
Other Terms
- Soliloquy: A character speaking their true thoughts and feelings while alone on stage.
- Pun: A play on words with multiple meanings.
- Tragedy: A drama exciting pity and/or fear, often with a reversal of Fortune, providing catharsis.
- Comedy: A literary work, especially a play, with a happy ending, often containing misunderstandings and mistaken identity.
Quiz about the basics of drama, including definitions and forms of dramatic writing.
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